Warriors red-hot against Somerset for 66-48 win

Southwestern shoots 56 percent from field for fourth straight victory Friday night at the 'Briar Patch'

By DOUG EADS, CJ Correspondent

After rolling over the Wayne County Cardinals by a 20-point margin on Thursday night in picking up a huge early-season district win, the Southwestern Warriors rolled across town last night to the Briar Patch, to square off with arch-rival Somerset in a cross-town rival game.

And, Southwestern rolled to another impressive victory.

Dave Schulz’ club shot a torrid, 68 percent from the field in the opening half of play while building up a 39-22 lead at the break, and the Warriors simply never looked back in leaving Somerset in their rear-view mirror.

For the game, Southwestern shot a red-hot 56 percent from the floor in moving to 4-1 on the season by knocking off the Briar Jumpers by a 66-48 margin.

So coach Schulz, what about your club’s offensive execution in this one?

“I know we’re not where we are supposed to be yet, so that’s on our guys being able to find the post, find Robbie’s (Lewis) hands, Robbie finishing, and our team understanding to get the ball down low and then kick it out,” pointed out a very happy Schulz after Friday night’s contest.

Indeed, Lewis had a big hand in helping his club win its fourth consecutive game last night after a season-opening loss last week at Cumberland County.

And he certainly had plenty of help.

The sophomore center was a man down in the paint all night for the Warriors, leading Southwestern with a game-high 14 points, on the strength of going 7-for-10 from the field.

Fellow sophomore Daulton Marlow contributed in a big way by nailing four three-pointers on his way to a 12-point night, while point guard Tyler Mayer played an almost flawless game, chipping in with 10 points, on a night when the Warriors offense looked like a well-oiled machine.

“We shot it extremely well tonight,” said Schulz. “We want to get into a transition game and move the ball up and down the floor, and in our last two games, Tyler (Mayer) has really done a good job and has played the way I want him to play,” said Schulz.

“He’s played care-free, with a lot of motion and a lot of fluid to his game, but a lot of control to his game with speed to go with it,” added the SWHS head coach.

Southwestern led the Jumpers after one stop 14-8, but thanks to Mayer, that lead quickly grew to double figures in the second stanza.

Mayer came up with a steal and hit a wide open Marlow in the corner who drained one of his four three’s on the night, giving Southwestern a 23-12 advantage, forcing a Briar Jumper timeout with 5:06 remaining in the first half of play.

Somerset head coach Don Daniel called that timeout in hopes of righting the ship, but it was to no avail, as the Jumpers would trail the Warriors by double digits for almost the remainder of the contest.

With the loss, Somerset dropped to 0-4 on the season, and Daniel stated afterwards that his team had two major obstacles last night that it couldn’t overcome.

First, the Warriors played lights out, and second, his team is still not doing some of the little things that teams need to do to win.

“Southwestern is an outstanding basketball team, they are extremely well-coached, and they looked like a well-oiled machine out there tonight,” pointed out coach Daniel.

“We’re at a point in time right now where we just don’t have a margin for error,” continued the Briar Jumper head coach. “Things seem to kind of tumble once a shot is missed or a play is not completed. It just kind of spirals from there. We knew mentally how we wanted to play them defensively tonight, and try to take things away, but then we didn’t execute it. I think (Daulton) Marlow had four three’s in the first half, and that was a point of emphasis on our scouting report not to give him open looks, yet he still had four three’s. That’s just the kind of things that we can’t allow to happen.”

Both teams got some excellent play off their respective benches in last night’s game.

For the Warriors, junior Brannon Bellar gave his club a big lift with nine points off the bench and Aaron Brown chipped in with five points.

Somerset meanwhile got nine points from reserve Cory Jones and six points from Tyler Megargel, but it would not be enough on this night.

For the Jumpers, Somerset is still seeking its first win of the young season, and at 0-4 on the year, things certainly don’t get any easier for coach Daniel and crew next week.

On Tuesday Somerset will travel to Liberty to take on Casey County in a district contest, with another road trip next Friday night at Rockcastle County, in another critical district game.

“We’re really in a quandary right now as to what we do,” stated Daniel.

“Our conditioning is such that we really need to condition — nobody’s fault — it’s just one of those things that happens,” continued the SHS coach. “Do I take practice time away to do the kind of conditioning that we need to do, or do we try to get it done in our playing time out on the floor, and play our way into it? If you try to play your way into it, it’s an awful, awful slow process.”

Meanwhile for the Warriors, last night’s win over Somerset closed out a very big week for Southwestern and coach Schulz.

After winning a district game at Monticello on Tuesday night, the Warriors rolled over Wayne County on Thursday night at the Wigwam by a 64-44 margin, and then followed that up with last night’s 18-point win over the Briar Jumpers.

Southwestern will not return to action until next Saturday at South Laurel, when the Warriors will run up against Barbourville in the first round of the Hometown Bank Hoopin’ It Up Holiday Classic.

For coach Schulz, he knows his club is still a work in progress, but there’s no denying last night’s win over Somerset gave his club a 3-0 week, and a ton of momentum heading into holiday tournament play.

“For us to win all three of these games, I’ll certainly take it,” said Schulz. “I’m really proud of what we accomplished this week, because going in, I would have been very happy to win just two of three of these games, and I didn’t really care which two we won.”

“We’re learning, and I think where we are controlling things a little bit right now is on the defensive end, where we are giving our opponents a little bit of trouble right now,” Schulz added.



SW 14 25 10 17 — 66

SHS 8 14 9 17 — 48



SOUTHWESTERN — Lewis 14, Marlow 12, Mayer 10, Bellar 9, J. Epperson 8, C, Epperson 5, Brown 5, Schulz 3.



SOMERSET — Stringer 14, Townsend 12, Jones 9, Megargel 6, Troxtle 5.

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